I have been struggling for the last few days with discouragement.
Some days it’s as if I’m being pulled under water with barely enough energy to fight to keep my head up.
I have so many friends who are facing incredibly difficult circumstances. When I walk my dogs, Belle and Tink in our neighborhood last thing each night I pass houses that are filled with pain and questions.
In one, a husband with brain cancer, in another a marriage torn apart and three children caught in the bloody crossfire wondering if they could have done anything to help?
I watch the news
I read the paper
I read my email and I hear the cry of the broken and the lonely.
I know what I believe.
I believe that God is sovereign and He is good but at times there seems to be a chasm between the goodness of God and the suffering in this world.
Last night after everyone was asleep I sat outside under the stars inviting God into this heaviness inside me. In the quiet I thought about a conversation I had years ago with a young Filipino woman. We were passing out blankets and water to the thousands who try to make a living salvaging whatever they can from one of the enormous garbage dumps outside the city. Pictures attempt to prepare you for the sight but nothing prepares you for the stench and the noise. Towards the end of the day I walked away for a few moments, overwhelmed by the enormity of the need and she followed me. Wiping tears from my face she said, “It’s not okay but because of Jesus, one day it will be alright.”
So that’s what I want to say to you today.
I don’t know what you are walking through right now. I don’t know the pain or the loneliness you face. There are many things in this life that are not okay but one day, one day because of Jesus it will be alright.
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”
Revelation 21:1-4